Please Cite Your Sources
by Accetric
Summary: An attempt to promote team building and self help ends how ideas usually do for the Decepticons. Horribly wrong and out of control. As always Starscream and his devious ways uses the chaos to his advantage. Really though, Soundwave is just glad to have survived. There were reasons that the Decepticons were the way they are. No pairings.
1. Tertiary

A/N: I should really not be writing another fic, but this has been bothering me for a while. So I figured why not. I hope you enjoy my fic.

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Please Cite Your Sources- Tertiary

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At the end of it all, some argued that they were left off worse than when the whole _thing _began. Soundwave wasn't entirely sure on the effects of Megatron's idea on all of the Decepticons. For some it really did improve themselves and their relations to others. Still yet, with others, well, some refused to talk to their teammates and ignored them. Collectively as a whole, however, the words _"team building" _and _"self help" _struck fear into them at a circuit deep level.

It began, some argued after Megatron had been suplexed by Optimus Prime, and had been left still and frozen on the ground while most of the Decepticons that had been around the area dissolved into laughter.

Soundwave personally thought it began after that.

Starscream simply thought that this was just another reason to try his luck at offlining Megatron.

A few of the Decepticons thought it was because of how they had been growing more and more restless on Earth. Any discipline they had previously had been dissolved beyond recognition.

No matter what reason, the results were arguably the worse thing to happen to the Decepticons since the most devastating battle on Cybertron. Exaggeration aside, one hundred percent of the troops thought they were definitely being laughed at by Primus. Maybe Unicron, actually. That was still up for debate.

The devastating effects of Megatron's terrible, not too good, bad idea? Soundwave himself had crashed a couple times, something he wasn't proud of at all. Starscream had gone off in a tangent with a plan that Soundwave was ninety percent sure he was making up as he went. Seriously, who thought of spreading propaganda through _self help books? _Starscream did apparently. A good third of their faction were suffering from effects of getting overcharged in a grand '_Frag It All' _party that the Constructicons had thrown. They similarly had painted over their Decepticon symbols in favor of a different symbol.

Of those were Thundercracker who had seemingly abandoned his Trine in favor of blocking out the world and its craziness. Naturally, Starscream was less than pleased, but the blue seeker had taken Skywarp with him. Not even his own trine would go along with his plans this time around. Thundercracker seemed to enjoy this new third faction though, but he still ended up hearing Starscream talk to him about how his plan was going. He seemed determined to soak up whatever semblance of a different faction. A few had been holed up with him watching '_As the Kitchen Sinks'_ the last time Soundwave had sent a cassette to check on them.

Several other mechs had break downs. Have you ever seen a Triple-Changer throw his designated data pad down a hallway while all but crying? Blitzwing was most likely the catalyst for the '_Frag It All' _party. He had sobbed into Hook's shoulder about evil data pads.

Any long lasting effects were yet to be seen. Soundwave hoped that there would not be any, but with the assorted mechs there was always a chance.

All of the Deceptions still firmly hated each other, however, so whatever team building Megatron had expected was nonexistent. That much was certain at least. Though for a few mechs, the results from the team building and self help data pads only caused more problems for themselves and team mates.

Later on, Soundwave would realize that self help books really didn't help. They should have taken that insight from the little inhabitants of Earth at least.

Reflector could not be found at all in the following days from the fallout, even though they had searched through most of The Nemesis in search of him. Whatever data pad he had received must have had something to do with his disappearance. When Lazerbeak had returned from an outing on land, she had brought back with her footage of Reflector sitting contently in a meadow. He had taken a piece of advice from his self help data pad, and had gone out to relax with an activity he enjoyed.

Of course, it also happened that upon further investigation of his data pad later on, it was revealed that it was actually an attempt by Starscream to get rid of a Decepticon he felt he had no use for. The only piece of worthwhile advice had to come from Starscream. When Reflector had stumbled back to base feeling better than he had in millennia, no one really had the spark to tell him it was because Starscream really just wanted him gone.

Hey, they were Decepticons, but they had standards. Starscream excluded, and Swindle, and actually never mind.

The Stunticons were holed up and were refusing to leave the safety of their room. They hadn't enjoyed having Megatron use them as an example of what he had called an exercise in patience. Soundwave shook his helm just thinking about it. That so called exercise had ended with Drag Strip passed out on the floor of the Rec Room and Dead End bent over him reciting a commendation and farewell over his still frame. Breakdown had been screaming and backing up away from Dead End completely terrified of his team mate. Motormaster, in a surprising display of not being violent, was only yelling at Wildrider as the smaller mech sped around the room.

Frenzy for all his worth was actually quite shaken. When Soundwave had taken him aside to speak with him, the committal that Dead End had started to say near the end of the episode was downright creepy.

Though to be honest to see a blank faced Dead End sitting over Drag Strip, who was still very much alive, saying, "We therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in the sure and certain hope of eternal death." _was_ completely unnerving.

Between all of the insanity being spread around the base, Soundwave was alone as he tried to preserve what normalcy he could with his cassettes. Little Ratbat had no idea why so many mechs where upset, and it usually ended up with him staying inside Soundwave's quarters or in his docking bay. Lazerbeak, Ravage, and Buzzsaw were all very much tired from running around to report to Soundwave all that they saw.

Soundwave sighed as he sat down. He scrolled through some of the warnings cause by collateral damage to the Nemesis from the past week tiredly. There had been so much madness going on that he had even had to rely on third party information, something he hadn't thought possible in the small group of mechs. This was not so, as he had even received information from Ravage one day from a second hand story that Swindle of all mechs told of what had happened to the Coneheads when they had broken down.

That must not have been pretty for whoever had to clean up. The entire Rec Room, which had been nearly completely abandoned at the time, had been a complete mess. They had found them all piled onto each other claiming how much they would miss Dirge if he died. To be honest no one was completely sure if they had really had a breakdown or is they had actually tried bonding with each other. No one really wanted to know.

Soundwave shook his helm. He was glad that it was all over. His work was stacked to the roofs for him already, and another week of attempted help and bonding would have left them in shambles. Nothing but scorch marks upon the floor really.

He really needed to make sure that Megatron never tried to do this again. It just wasn't worth it. Their leader had single handedly demolished their ranks with one yelled sentence.

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A/N: Happy Halloween! Yes I know, not spooky or anything to deal with Halloween, but considering I already have a horror fic going on, this is a much needed breather. This is only going to be three chapters long, and it'll only be updated on holidays. (Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas)

On another note, I just made a tumblr. For Nanowrimo of course, so if you want to check out how much I'm complaining, how I'm doing, or just to see little bits for En Prise feel free to drop by. I'm also going to be reblogging some cool things about writing, so if you're interested in that sort of thing. I'm at novemberlywritings . tumblr . com.


	2. Secondary

A/N: Yo, guess who's back and super super super late? Have I mentioned that I'm late? This was supposed to be typed up for Thanksgiving and well, you can see how that turned out. Oh well. WInter break started though, so I'm going to be updating my fics now at least. The past month has been killer. Anyway, on with the fic.

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Thundercracker groaned, clasped his helm between his servos, and wondered why Primus, or Unicron even, wouldn't strike him down. Starscream was going on again with some sort of ill advised plan again he could already tell. There was a distinctive smugness that he could feel faintly through the trine bond. The blue mech watched tiredly as his trine leader busily hauled a good amount of datapads behind me.

_His life was nothing but pain._

He didn't even question Starscream this time, and left the room. For all that it was worth his departure really didn't matter anyway. Starscream would continue on with his plan no matter what, and he didn't even care if he had to do all the pads alone. With a smirk, he deleted sentences and began steadily re-typing new versions.

Megatron wouldn't know what hit him.

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It wasn't long before the results of his work began to show. Whole lists of complaints came in from mechs, who took the suggestion of writing what negatively affected them seriously. In one night cycle, Megatron came out of recharge with a queue waiting for him.

The Rec Room became a shoddily set up group to discus personal problems. Fights broke out, and by the time order was brought upon them, the poor room had an entire con-caved wall, and a strangely Motormaster shaped dent was in the floor. They were shuffled off to the Brig for an earth day.

No one noticed the lack Combaticons, though. Megatron was too busy being outraged, and failing to remain calm as always. Watching the bubbling commotion, with not a small part of satisfaction, Starscream waited. And waited. And no one was leaving or really interested in overthrowing Megatron. But, Starscream could be a patient mech, and so he waited.

It was around that time that suddenly little strips of words began to show up. In the hallways, in the rooms, and even on the ceiling they popped up. When one accidentally brushed against Starscream's wing, he snatched it and skimmed the writing on it in irritation. Neatly printed glyphs all sat perfectly on a straight line, and they read, _"Believe in yourself, and all things will be good for you!"_ If anyone asked, he had dropped in on the floor, but in his subspace sat a strip that would occasionally be brought out once in a while during the next few days.

Several mechs began to wonder where they were coming from, and it got worse when a personalized message began appearing on their room doors. Many assumed that it couldn't get worse. Others didn't care; the little strips didn't hurt any bot. There were still some that were trying to find the source of the annoying self assuring phrases. Megatron didn't say a word about them as if he couldn't see the gathering bits collecting on his throne.

That is, until the recordings began appearing. Starscream found one stuffed under his door, the non stop playing of self affirmations droning on and on when he came out of recharge. When he finally shut it off, he set out to find who was responsible for it. That recorder was also tucked safely into his subspace, and only taken out to be played at a low volume whenever he was in his room.

When they did eventually find out the culprits, as it turned out, no one really mentioned the surreal aspect that was experienced. To be honest now, who would have guessed the Combaticons? Starscream wondered if this idea was really that great. It wasn't. So, he tried a different approach. Or would have if he could have gotten all the datapads back.

Though seeing Motormaster yell that Megatron was the worst creator ever, was really entertaining. The toll from everything was beginning to set in. Starscream grinned, it would be anytime now. His plans would pay off. All that hard work, all that time spent typing. It would all be worth it. He was sure of it.

Brawl almost murdered him when he went to the Combaticons.

Mixmaster almost spilled acid on his wings from how hard he shook from laughter.

So, instead, Starscream went into his room to deviously think some more. It'd work though, it just had to. Megatron would be out of the picture for this havoc, and then he'd be in control. Yup, that's how it would turn out. Starscream grabbed a cube of high grade from a small pile that he hid, rubbed a servo over his faceplates in frustration, pulled out the recorder, and proceeded to block out the screams outside of his door.


End file.
